Spokespersons of the governments of Israel,
the U.S. and Canada have been repeating endlessly that the
Israeli aggression against the people of Lebanon is an act of “self-defence”
in response to the abduction of two of its soldiers by Hezbollah. Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper went so far as to describe Israel’s wholesale attacks and invasion of Lebanon and its
massive destruction of infrastructure and civilian homes as a “measured
response”. However, as in every other case of Israeli aggression against its
neighbours, the argument of “self-defence” is based on the deliberate
falsification of reality, as well as the history of the region since 1948.
Israel states that Hezbollah fighters “kidnapped” two Israeli soldiers on
July 12, 2006. Conveniently for Israel,
history apparently begins on that date, because then it is possible for the
Israelis and their allies to ignore the 9,800 Palestinians and Lebanese
citizens kidnapped by Israeli forces and still languishing in Israeli prisons.
They also ignore the incursions by the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) into
Lebanese territory, their regular shelling of civilians in the south of Lebanon
and continuing policy of assassination of “enemies of Israel” in the streets of
Beirut, Gaza and other cities which have been going on for years. When Israel
carries out such acts of aggression they are portrayed as legitimate “acts of
self-defence” by a “small nation surrounded by enemies”, but when Hezbollah
responds to the IDF murder of a Lebanese shepherd boy and the kidnapping of
Hezbollah fighters by capturing a couple of IDF soldiers it is portrayed as an
unforgivable act of war by so-called “terrorists”.
During the past three weeks, more than 400 Lebanese civilians have
been killed by Israeli bombs and shells. Israel claims that these killings
are “accidental”, but the evidence speaks otherwise. The world has seen
pictures of refugee buses and ambulances destroyed by Israeli “smart bombs”. It
has seen the carnage in Qana and the hypocrisy of the IDF which drops leaflets
on Lebanese villages warning residents to flee and then destroys the exit roads
and targets refugee columns. The admission by Israeli military spokespersons
that the IDF is striving to destroy every residence within 30 kilometres of the
border in order to establish a “buffer zone” establishes beyond a shadow of a
doubt that civilian casualties are deliberate and not “collateral damage”. The
Israelis and their supporters think that by labelling these civilians as Hezbollah
supporters their crimes are justified. However, attacks against civilians
constitute war crimes no matter what the political or religious views those
civilians may hold.
Defenders of Israel such as U.S. President George W. Bush, British
Prime Minister Tony Blair and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who are
not only justifying Israel’s actions but helping in various ways to facilitate
them, are guilty of collaboration in the commission of those war crimes. In the
case of George W. Bush the responsibility goes much further, since it is
inconceivable that Israel
would have launched the current aggression against Lebanon without prior approval from
the White House. Once the Israeli invasion of Lebanon
began, President Bush announced that he was fast-tracking the delivery of American
“smart bombs” to Israel
to replenish those it was dropping on Lebanese apartments and hospitals. The U.S. ambassador to the UN, John Bolton, has been
instrumental in preventing the UN from taking any action against Israel even
after the deliberate Israeli bombing of a UN observer post and the killing of
four UN observers. Bush, Blair and Harper have been unanimous in opposing any
call for a cease-fire until after Israel accomplishes its goal of
destroying Hezbollah.
The problem confronting Israel is that a goal it claimed it
could accomplish in a week or two is now proving much more difficult than it
imagined. The IDF is sustaining heavy casualties and has been forced to
withdraw from at least one Lebanese village. Meanwhile, Hezbollah rockets
continue to rain down on Israeli cities and Hezbollah has vowed to strike
targets in Tel Aviv if Israel
continues to bomb targets in Beirut.
The more or less open Israeli objective of collectively punishing the Lebanese Shia community for its support of Hezbollah and its
attempts to blackmail the Lebanese people into turning on Hezbollah have also
abjectly failed. For the first time in decades, the entire Lebanese nation is
unified in opposition to Israel
and its U.S.
backers.
The IDF may be one of the most powerful armies in the world, but it
is an army organized around the tactic of blitzkrieg.
It is not well adapted to prolonged warfare. This is why, from the first days
of the invasion, the U.S.
has been talking about using NATO troops to occupy southern Lebanon and
complete the disarming of Hezbollah. This plan also appears to be faltering
since the Lebanese government has categorically refused to accept NATO troops
on its soil and the U.S.
has been unable to convince any of its NATO allies to commit troops to such a
venture. The Americans also have not explained how they intend to accomplish
with a relatively small NATO force what Israel failed to accomplish in more
than a decade of occupation of southern Lebanon and what the U.S. and its
allies have failed to accomplish after three years in Iraq and almost five
years in Afghanistan. The U.S.
and Israel have now been
forced to backtrack on their earlier statements that a UN peacekeeping force
would be unacceptable and are campaigning for the UN
to step in and occupy southern Lebanon
for the Israelis. However, regardless of what colour helmets they wear or what
flag they operate under the problem remains the same. No occupation force can
succeed in crushing the resistance of the Lebanese people so long as they
refuse to accept foreign domination and interference in their internal affairs.